He had difficulty finding effective generals to lead the Union armies until the appointment of General Ulysses S Grant as overall Commander in 1864. In the effort to win the war, Lincoln assumed more power than any President before him, declaring martial law and suspending legal rights. This was an important symbolic gesture that identified the Union's struggle as a war to end slavery. Lincoln always defined the Civil War as a struggle to save the Union, but in January 1863 he nonetheless issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in areas still under Confederate control. Lincoln vowed to preserve the Union even if it meant war.įighting broke out in April 1861. Seven southern states left the Union to form the Confederate States of America, also known as the Confederacy. His victory provoked a crisis, with many southerners fearing that he would attempt to abolish slavery in the South. In the Presidential Campaign, Lincoln made his opposition to slavery very clear. He joined the new Republican Party in 1856 and in 1860 was asked to run as its Presidential candidate. He sat in the State Legislature from 1834 to 1842 and in 1846 was elected to Congress, representing the Whig Party for one term. In 1836, he qualified as a lawyer and went to work in a law practice in Springfield, Illinois. Lincoln himself was largely self-educated. His schoolmate and playmate Benjamin Gollaher (aka "Austin" Gollaher) was the son of poor pioneers. He was brought up in Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. His Presidency was dominated by the American Civil War.Ībraham Lincoln was born on 12 February 1809 near Hodgenville, Kentucky. Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States and one of the great American leaders.
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